HTC's Sense skin for Android has long been a bloated skeuomorphic mess, with aluminum ring pulls, flip clocks and fancy weather animations. If these leaked screenshot are accurate, though, that all looks set to change—for the better.

These images were posted by XDA developer mdeejay, who claims to have a working port of the forthcoming Sense 5 skin. If they're the real deal, HTC users can breathe a sigh of relief: the design looks flatter, cleaner and less cluttered. There's no reliance on brushed metal and retro design cues here—instead, all that's replaced with sleek fonts, clean lines and simple but striking design.

That seems to be echoed in HTCs icon design, too: the camera and message icons, for instance, are far neater than HTC's current offering. If—and it's still a big if—these are genuine, then HTC's software just got one almighty design shot in the arm. [XDA via Android Central via Engadget]